Lee Valley B.E. chisels

Ian Gillis

Member
Messages
443
Location
Nova Scotia's beautiful south shore
Hi

I didn't want to hijack the other chisel thread, so here I go.

The majority of woodworkers I know are very fond of Lee Valley products. One LV branded product that I have never heard any opinion on is their Japanese made bevel-edged chisels. At about $50 for a set of 5 they sound like a good deal.

Lots of folks use Blue Chips or plastic handled Stanleys for starter chisels and hang on to them for rough work as they upgrade. Seems like the LV's should be in the same category, but they're never mentioned.

So, who's used the LV's and what do you think of them?
 
Hi Ian, you mean these ones?

chisel_storage.jpg


When I needed to replace chisels quickly after a theft, I turned to LV for my need. I would say they are a decent set. You can crumble the edges if sharpened at too low an angle on hard woods or one bashes them hard even with a steeper bevel angle taking a thicker cut.

Would I purchase them today? Only if the AIs were beyond my reach. But I would over the Marples, pre-Irwin [but barely], that I have had. I actually like the handle size and shape.

Take care, Mike
 
Hi Ian, most of my exposure to chisels which I don't own comes from teaching day-long or half-day classes on hand tool use and belong to students. Quite a bit of fun.

Still others get sent my way, often times for grinding back from damage [in the case of newer ones] or vintage ones which are in need to a lot of work and probably new handles made.

Take care, Mike
 
Ian, the set of 5 LV bevel-edge chisels is a good value-priced set. I have a set of these, and for the price, they're very good. Steel is decent and they're ground reasonably well. You'll have to invest a fair amount of time flattening the backs, though. I found that a 35 degree secondary bevel is the best compromise for me with these chisels. As Mike mentions, use a lower angle bevel, and the edge crumbles pretty easily. Also these chisels aren't as well balanced as something like the LN's... but then again the LN's are 5X the price.

Dan
 
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